My topic is: It Begins On The Inside. My topic is taken from Proverbs 23:7: Let us turn there. ,/,/,/ - Here begineth the reading of God's Holy Word. Proverbs 23:7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee. - Here endeth the reading of God's Holy Word. The Word of God clearly reveals that as you think in your heart, so are you: Effortless change sounds impossible. Yet that's what the Word reveals about how the kingdom of God works. Most people view change as a difficult, painful, and labor-intensive process. To their way of thinking, it takes a huge amount of effort to change their thoughts, actions, and circumstances. Due to this, change is something they resist. It's hard to change routines, traditions, and longstanding problems. People get stuck in ruts, stuck in ways of thinking and doing. Therefore, there's just a natural resistance toward change. I want to share with you some truths from the Word of God that can totally transform the way you understand and approach change. If you receive these truths into your heart and apply them to your life, you will be able to see change take place in your life effortlessly. Many people donot even recognize their need to change. Others are very aware and have a strong desire to change. If you're sick, you probably desire to walk in health. If you're in poverty, it is likely you want to experience more of God's financial provision. You may realize that you would like certain changes in your life, externally. However, all true change begins internally. It starts with what is on the inside of you. Do Not Limit God. I don't know how long it will take to change the image that's inside of you. It may take a week, a month, a year, five years I don't know. The word says that a day is as a thousand years and a thousand is as a day. You may expect change to happen over night. Yet, it may take five years. On the other hand, you may expect change to take five years. Yet, it may happen over night. When you are walking in that chakina glory, eternity can actually in vade time. If you change, you will start seeing increase! Some things that need to change are our attitudes, thoughts, and expectations. When we changed on the inside, everything in our lives will begin to change on the outside. External change begins to happen when we start to change the way we think on the inside. If you want to see change outwardly, it has to begin on the inside. That's what this message is all about how to start changing on the inside. If you can change the way you think, the way you are on the inside, then you'll see a change on the outside...effortlessly. If you cannot or should I say will not change on the inside, then you are not going to change on the outside. You can pray, beg God, and get other people to intercede for you all you want. They could even lay hands on you until they rub all the hair off the top of your head. But you are not going to see change in your life externally, until you change internally. Many people say, "But I do desire to change. I have done everything I know. Yet, it seems like things are just continually the same." God's Word is true. As you think in your heart, so are you. This is a law of God. Romans 8:6 confirms this truth. Let us turn there. ,/,/,/ - Here begineth the reading of God's Holy Word. Romans 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. - Here Endeth the reading of God's Holy Word. Before you take offense, resenting and disagreeing with what I am sharing, consider this truth. Of course, everyone has a bump in the road now and again, whether they are walking with the Lord or not. You live in a fallen world, and you have an Enemy who comes against you. Not every single problem in your life is a direct result of something on the inside of you. However, if your life overall is spiraling downward, nothing ever works, and problems are all you seem to experience, then you should stop to consider what I'm saying. What Have You Planted? People typically respond by blaming someone, or something else: It is the color of my skin. It is my family background. I was disadvantaged. This person mistreated me. They will blame anybody: It is my employer who is the jerk, not me. It is always somebody else is fault. However, the Word makes it clear, that your experience, your situation. is basically because of the way you think. As you think in your heart, that is the way it is. When you are spiritually minded, all you get is life and peace. When you are not, you get death. You may not like that. You might be saying No, that is not true, but Romans 6 says it is. If I came to your house to see what you planted in your garden, I would not have to be with you when you sowed the seeds. All I'd have to do is be there when the plants start growing up. If you have corn growing, you planted corn. If there are peas, you sowed peas. Perhaps someone else could have come in and planted something in your garden. However, it's your responsibility to guard and protect your garden. Whatever is growing there is what you've planted or what you've allowed to be planted. Just as this is true in the natural realm, it's true in the spiritual realm. Whatever is growing in the garden of your life is what you've planted or allowed to be planted in your heart. Before you can really see change, you must quit using excuses and blaming anybody and everybody else for what is wrong in your life. You have to stop saying, It is just fate or luck, and nothing ever works for me. Scripture reveals that as you think in your heart, that is the way you are going to be . If you think spiritually minded, all it produces is life and peace, that is what Romans 8:6 says. Second Peter 1:2 agrees with this. Let us turn there. ,/,/,/ - Here begineth the reading of God's Holy Word. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord. - Here endeth the reading of God's Holy Word. Many people want grace and peace to be multiplied to them. They desire peace in their lives, but they are praying for it. They're asking other people to help them get it. Actually, they're looking for peace to come externally from outside of them, into their circumstances. This scripture reveals that peace comes through the knowledge of God. Peace in your life is not going to be the absence of problems or challenging circumstances around you. God's kind of peace is there even in the midst of a storm. It resides on the inside. Then, eventually, that peace on the inside of you will begin to change the circumstances on the outside. Let us see what 2 Peter has to say about this. Let us turn there. ,/,/,/ - Here begineth the reading of God's Holy Word. 2 Peter 1:3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue. - Here endeth the reading of God's Holy Word. The Knowledge Of God. This says that His divine power has already given all things to us. Most people want God to just come with His power from the outside in. They pray, Oh Lord, stretch forth Your mighty hand and touch me! They are looking for God to send a spiritual bolt of lightning to hit them, and BOOM they are healed, prospered, delivered, or whatever they need. However, this scripture says that all things that pertain to life and godliness come through the knowledge of God. This includes healing, prosperity, deliverance, joy, peace, success in business, good relationships, and anything else that is of God. Everything that pertains to life and godliness comes through the knowledge of God. The born again Christian already has the peace of God in their spirit, and as they renew their mind to who they are and what they have in Christ, they draw that peace out into their experience. The dominant experience of your life is the way you think on the inside. Instead of looking for a change to take place externally in everybody and everything else around you, the first thing you need to do is recognize that change begins on the inside of you. It is according to the knowledge of God you have. Reality. This is a simple truth, but it is profound. In fact, most people miss it because it is so simple. No, it must be more complex than that. It cannot just be the fact that I am not thinking properly about things. God's Word is true. You can turn any circumstance around in your life by getting His perspective and starting to think His thoughts. Some people call this by different names, but I believe this is what the Bible calls faith. Faith is simply seeing things from God's perspective. When someone wrongs you, instead of just reacting in the natural, physical realm based on your emotions faith considers, What does God's Word say? So, you take a scripture like Ephesians 6:12, Let us turn there. ,/,/,/ - Here begineth the reading of God's Holy Word. Ephesians 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places - Here endeth the reading of God's Holy Word. This scripture tells us that we are not wrestling against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. So, instead of just going by the fact that this person has pushed your hot button, because of God's knowledge that you have through His Word, you recognize that the devil can speak through people and use them to come against you. Instead of just seeing things in the natural, you have a different perspective because of the knowledge of God. You think differently on the inside. You realize that it's not really that person who is angry at you and resisting God inside you. Because of this, you just constantly respond differently than other people do. You love that person instead of getting into strife, and it produces different results. All of this begins with you thinking differently. There are hundreds of testimonies from persons who have personally experienced this truth. This is reality. However, most people want change in their circumstances, but they don't recognize that the change begins on the inside of them. Insanity. It is not unusual to see 80 to 90 percent of a crowd of Christians, Spirit filled believers who recognize that there needs to be change in their lives. They are not satisfied with where they are, and they want something more. When asked, what are you going to do to effect change? What is going to be different? One of the definitions of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again expecting different results. If you want something to change on the outside, then you are going to have to start changing something on the inside. First of all, you must change in your heart. Then you will have to take some steps to cooperate with that change. Change is not going to come from the outside; it begins on the inside. If you want change in your life, then you are going to have to do something different. The moment this is brought up, resistance is istantly met, because people are afraid to change. We actually know people who were in terrible, miserable situations, yet they had adjusted to it. They knew they could survive. It may not be what they wanted. It may not have been their dreams or goals, but they had been there a long time. They knew they could survive, and they were afraid of failure. If that is you, one of the things that must happen in order to effect change in your life is you have to get to a place where you are sick and tired of being sick and tired. You have to really reach a place where you say, "I am going to do whatever it takes to see these external changes in my life. I am going to start changing the way I think. I am going to start taking some risks." Unless you're willing to do these things, you will never see external change. How Long? The Bible relates the story of when the city of Samaria was surrounded and besieged by the Assyrian army (2 Kings 6:24-7:20). Let us turn there and I will read select verses. ,/,/,/ - Here begineth the reading of God's Holy Word. 2 Kings 6:24-28 24 And it came to pass after this, that Benhadad king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria. 25 And there was a great famine in Samaria: and, behold, they besieged it, until an ass's head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver. 26 And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king. . . 28 And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to day, and we will eat my son to morrow. . . . Now we will jump down to: 2 Kings 7:3-16 3 And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate: and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die? 4 If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die. 5 And they rose up in the twilight, to go unto the camp of the Syrians: and when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there. 6 For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host: and they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us. 7 Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life. . . . Verse: 10 So they came and called unto the porter of the city: and they told them, saying, We came to the camp of the Syrians, and, behold, there was no man there, neither voice of man, but horses tied, and asses tied, and the tents as they were. . . . Verse: 15 And they (the king's messengers) went after them unto Jordan: and, lo, all the way was full of garments and vessels, which the Syrians had cast away in their haste. And the messengers returned, and told the king. 16 And the people went out, and spoiled the tents of the Syrians. So a measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the LORD. - Here endeth the reading of God's Holy Word. The Samaritans were starving so much that they were eating their own children. Animal dung, being sold as food, was commanding a high price. This city was suffering terribly from the siege, drought, and famine. The people were just about to be completely destroyed, yet they could not do anything about it because the Syrians had Samaria completely surrounded. Four lepers sat at the gate of Samaria. As they talked to each other, they said, "How long are we going to sit here until we die? If we stay here, we will die. If we go into the city, the famine will destroy us. Let us go out to the Syrians. If they kill us, we are just going to die here anyway. We do not have anything to lose. Perhaps they will show us mercy." So, these four lepers got up and went into the Syrian camp. It turned out that the Lord had already been there. He had caused the Syrians to hear a noise. They thought the Israelites had hired another nation against them, so they had fled in terror leaving behind all their food, animals, tents, provisions, gold, and silver. The Syrians had fled for their lives and left everything behind! These four lepers, who were facing starvation just a few minutes before, experienced a tremendous personal deliverance. They went out to the camp and discovered food that was still warm. They began to eat their fill. They found clothes, gold, and silver. After doing all these things, eventually they were the ones who brought the good news back to the city of Samaria. They became the heroes that actually proclaimed deliverance to the entire area. All of this happened because four lepers, shunned by their city, sitting out at the gates, starving to death, finally made a decision. Even though their outlook seemed terrible, they declared, "We have got to do something. We are going to die if we stay where we are. We must head in some direction." So, they considered their options. Even though this one did not look real good, it was better than sitting still and dying. And because they did something different, they experienced tremendous deliverance. Change Is Needed. Right now you may be dying like these lepers, if not physically, then perhaps emotionally— you know you're dying, your marriage is falling apart, things are not going right. You are keenly aware that something is wrong. You know there is more, yet you are fearful to take any steps because you are afraid you might fail. If you would just look at things properly, you would realize that you are failing now Even if you have a guaranteed income, live in a relatively nice house, and your circumstances are going well, if you are not satisfied and fulfilled in your heart, then you are dying and change is necessary. If you do not wake up in the morning and feel like saying "Praise God, another opportunity to do what the Lord has called me to do and make a difference in this world," then whether you realize it or not, change is needed. If you want different results, then you are going to have to do something different. To keep doing the same thing over and over again, and praying for different results, is insane. If you want different results, do something different. True change begins on the inside. Now you can sit there and pray for God to do something externally. Many people are praying to win the lottery, or some other roll of the dice. If that is what you are believing for, you are not following God. That is not the way He is going to meet your need. The odds of that happening are millions to one. Nobody is going to walk into your office and, out of the blue, ask you to become the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. That is not how life works. Change does not happen that way. If you want change on the outside, it begins on the inside.